[Shawn 507]

Our carbon footprint is too big and the planet too warm for them. And a scarf wearing guy like FVD would rather be dead than transfer to a C-130/17 outfit. So there wont be any jiont Model Hanger II Ops.
- Shawn

[MoMo]

...and they would have us all running casinos and name their baseball teams after us!!....
Skunky

Not even this, Skunky!

Alien Estate Agents ( Realtors ) would be carving up bits of the earth for Alien versions of Earthly enterprises : e.g. Andromeda-Fried Humans, and as the chemistry of the Earth was configured to suit the new masters of the Earth, the last of our species would whither and die.

Why should alien capitalism be novel? If monetary forces drive the interstellar economy, our goose is well cooked!

[SKUNKY]

MoMo, how am I supposed to get any sleep now????.....

[Cardinal]

Before you lot digress any further and miss the point of the book entirely (due to your overly literal interpretation of the title), let me once again focus your attention on its topical nature .

Essentially, this book is examining concepts of asymmetrical warfare that would have to be practised against any technologically advanced 'civilisation' invading our globally warmed and terraformed planet . As such, strong parallels exist between what is currently being experienced in current conflicts i.e. those with 'technologically advanced' systems and firepower are suffering severe losses fighting against opposition that lacks the equivalent resources but makes use of classic assymetrical warfare techniques to 'even the odds'. Lessons for the management and conduct of asymmetrical warfare are very much part of the value of this book and it should be required reading for all those in the military as well as those interested in military history.

[Shawn 507]

There is plenty written on assymetrical warfare without using ET as the enemy. Its not a new thing in on the batttlefield, its just a pain in the backside to fight when playing by the rules. If we were playing by their rules this thing would be over by now. But for fear of world / public opinion, we play by the rules and pay even more for doing so. Funny how an alien invasion would allow such TTPs, but a cowardly group of radicals bent on our distruction will not.
Heck some on this planet would probably sell out the whole just to save their six, only to be betrayed in the end. Sheep, wolves and sheep dogs!
- Shawn

[jim]

Erm scuse me but why do we keep trying to contact Aliens?

Heck I dont want to be eaten by some bug,

If I wanted that I would book myself into a British hospital it happens all the time in those places.

[MoMo]

How to generate an a-symetrical force/strategy which would prevail over primitive types and such-loke? Easy!

Don't invade countries where all you do is send out your own troops to be targets.

If you're the guy with the biggest stick on the block, everyone can see you before you even turn the corner.

Vietnam taught the world a lesson. Afghanistan taught the world a lesson. Who learned the lesson?

War is far too problematical to be left up to politicians to direct it. By the same token, most officers are generally promoted well beyond the level of their own competancy, and have very little understanding of the peoples who inhabit the lands where they are fighting ( indeed, why should they? ).

Determined, indiginous forces with no fear of death, but determined to sell their lives dearly, can only be defeated by cutting off the supplies and reinforcements which support and sustain his effort. At the same time, the number of potential targets which may be of interest to him must be narrowed to as few as possible.

The only real alternative to this is to use radical, non-nuclear, force. This, of course, would be unacceptable.

Weapons designed to be used by companies are the weapons used by insurgents. Such weapons would be the weapons used by small groups of humans trying to battle a hostile, alien takeover. If I was an insurgent leader conducting a campaign to discourage an invading force from settling down, I would be doing what the insurgency is doing in Iraq at present. Use mines, use ambushes, kill allies, take hostages, spread underground literature, spread lies, show torture victims, use the media through the internet.

All of this is designed to divide and to dislocate effort. The people who use these methods learned them from the defeat of the USA in Vietnam and from the defeat of the USSR in Afghanistan. It is not rocket science. Anyone who has a support base, and determination can make a bigger, more technologically advanced opponent suffer until he can take no more. That is what is happening in Iraq.

When enough soldiers from the UK are killed to satisfy " honour", they will leave and come home. The politicians will say that they offered 'Democracy' to the Iraqis, but it was thrown in their faces. " What could we do? We couldn't stand to sustain losses for ever. etc.

If an advanced alien force ever hits our planet, there won't be any messing about, if they wish to take over. They will study our body chemistry, then develop a poison specific to our species, and gas the lot of us. They won't mess about. They will treat us the same way we treat termite invasion.....kill the bugs! Good old HG Wells used this very idea in his story " The War of the Worlds". The irony was that the aliens are killed by our bacteria, not the other way about.

Perhaps aliens are aware of this and can't really hope to take over. Let's hope so. BUT, would we be willing to use such a method to kill off the insurgents?

I'll try to paraphrase what Wells writes at the end of his story :

" So the Martians were defeated, not by human intervention or force, not by mighty battleships, not by massed armies, but by the most humble of creatures which God, in his infinite wisdom, had put upon the Earth."

See, even in literature there is balance in the universe.

[Shawn 507]

Lessons were learned! The question remains, "How do you defeat them without upsettig the world?" Or are they not to be engaged at all?
- Shawn

[MoMo]

Re: An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-

---

Lessons were learned! The question remains, "How do you defeat them without upsettig the world?" Or are they not to be engaged at all?
- Shawn

Show me the person who has yet come up with an answer to this one!

In a Capitilist world the answer is to buy them off. In an Idealistic world, the answer was to win their hearts and minds. In a Totalitarian world, the answer is to wipe them all out: the innocent with the guilty.

Time to gear up the propaganda, and stop pussy-footing aroud fundamental " Truths " ! This is what may happen in the world to be.